News: Plants Vs. Zombies Coming to iPhone

By iphoneblog on Sep 03, 2009 with Comments 0

pvziphoneteaser Earlier this year, PopCap Games once again proved their pedigree as the premiere publisher in the casual games space when it released Plants vs. Zombies to PC and Mac owners the world over. A unique spin on the tower defense genre, Plants vs. Zombies once again proved PopCap’s ability to re-invent the wheel. It quickly earned widespread critical acclaim and commercial success, selling “more briskly in its first 90 days of online availability than any previous game we’ve published,” according to PopCap’s VP of Marketing Ben Rotholtz.

Given PopCap’s track record it only stood to reason that PvZ would be ported to every console known to man. That’s why it comes as no surprise when PopCap Games announced this morning that, in addition to an upcoming port to Xbox Live Arcade and a recent retail box release, Plants vs Zombies will be arriving in the AppStore for iPhone users in late 2009.

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PopCap has had a tremendously good track record with iPhone Games. Peggle, Bookworm, and Bejeweled 2 have all been ported to the popular portable with great success. Few of these games, however, required the visual real estate that Plants vs. Zombies will. It’s a question that’s begging to be asked — how are you going to manage to fit the fast paced, screen-filling action of Plants vs Zombies on a 3.5″ widescreen?

That’s not to say that PopCap won’t be able to do it. I have no doubt in my mind that they’ll execute a perfect port — it’s what they’re known for. But how? Will they retool the game to create a smaller playfield? Will they offer a “scan-and-pan” camera that lets you move around the board? It’s a befuddling conundrum to be sure, but one I’m looking forward to seeing solved.

No price or solid release date has been announced, but PopCap assures us you can expect to see this one in the AppStore by the end of the year. In the meantime, why not check out our review of the original Mac version?